Marilyn Morheuser’s last terrible year had wreaked havoc on the
Education Law Center. Its staff was decimated, its finances were a shambles, and its case was approaching another critical juncture: the courtordered deadline for a new school-funding law was less than a year away.
Despite her faults, Morheuser had been an extraordinary leader for ELC—
dedicated, courageous, and profoundly committed to children. Even under
ideal circumstances, replacing her would have been difficult, and ELC’s
circumstances were far from ideal. The new executive director would have
to accept months of job insecurity while wooing funders, rebuilding the
organization, and mastering the complex Abbott litigation. The board
feared no one would want the job. It was serendipity, ELC founder Paul
Tractenberg reflected years later, that a few weeks after Morheuser’s
death, they found the right person.

David Sciarra was another lapsed Catholic with a fierce sense of mission, but in other respects he was no Morheuser replica. Morheuser had
been a child of the Depression, a midwesterner from a middle-class home,
an activist who turned to the law in her forties and married herself to her
cause. Sciarra was nearly thirty years younger, a blue-collar Jersey kid who
went to law school soon after college and found time for family life.
Morheuser’s charisma, commitment, and unusual life story had made her
a compelling public figure, equal parts grandmotherly former nun and
relentless crusader, a burnished icon of righteousness. Sciarra shared
her passion for social justice and her tenacity in legal battle, but he cut
a more familiar figure: the lawyer with a cause that engaged but did not

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